The Song Dynasty on the Sand Table

Chapter 251 Zhang Wazi, a person with connections
Zhang Wazi can be considered a typical example of "Chinese-style promotion".

The most important thing for this kind of promotion is "you need to have some connections," and his connection was Zhang Yong.

Zhang Yong has now become one of the leading generals of the rebel army. With this status, promoting his own soldiers will be a piece of cake.

The rebel army now has a total of fifty riflemen, and the other forty-nine are all elite smoothbore musketeers promoted from the best. Only Zhang Wazi was promoted from the kitchen staff.

This made Zhang Wazi seem somewhat out of place in this elite team of fifty men.

These fifty men were organized into a separate battalion called the "Scattered Soldiers Battalion," a name personally chosen by the True Lord.

The soldiers were a little confused as to why the True Lord would give the elite musketeer battalion such a derogatory name.

The term "scattered soldiers" is usually used together with the term "wandering soldiers".

The term "scattered soldiers" is not a compliment.

Of course, no one dared to criticize Zhenjun, but the other forty-nine people simply criticized Zhang Wazi.

"Hey, have you heard? That seventeen-year-old kid is Zhang Yong's sworn brother from the same village, which is why he was able to be promoted directly from the mess troop to the skirmisher battalion."

"Wow, such a strong connection?"

"Then our battalion will be one person short, with only forty-nine men left!"

"Yes, that kid can't be used as a person. Let's just pretend he doesn't exist and is just here to make a living."

Everyone around him saw him that way, so naturally no one spoke to him.

Zhang Wazi felt rather lonely in the skirmish camp. He reminisced about how carefree he used to be in the Yuanyang Squad of Zhangjia Village, when Zhang Yong was still called Zhang Dalang, leading everyone to earn battle merits. Zhang Dashu was a fool who talked nonsense all the time, making everyone laugh every day.

Now, he's become practically invisible in the skirmish camp!

Even during regular training, his comrades avoided him.

He's feeling sad...

The battalion commander walked in from outside, carrying a box, and said with a smile, "Everyone come here. The higher-ups have issued another box of training gunpowder. They say the next time the Jin bandits come, it will be the final battle. The higher-ups want everyone to practice their marksmanship again."

Everyone was overjoyed and rushed over, each taking some gunpowder.

Zhang Wazi also went with everyone to collect gunpowder. When it was his turn to receive the gunpowder, the battalion commander was clearly a little unhappy. He really didn't want to waste the precious gunpowder on someone with connections, but General Qi's military regulations were strict, and infighting within the army was strictly prohibited.

The battalion commander dared not neglect Zhang Wazi, so he gave him a sufficient amount of training gunpowder. But after giving it to him, he couldn't help but say sarcastically, "Wazi, you'd better make good use of this gunpowder."

Zhang Wazi understood what this meant and said in a low voice, "Don't worry, I can do it."

The battalion commander grunted in response, said no more, and turned to encourage the other stragglers.

Zhang Wazi picked up the medicine and went to the shooting range to practice, only to find that all the targets were occupied by his comrades. He could only practice after everyone else had finished and a target became available.

There's nothing we can do but wait!

They waited for one or two hours.

The other soldiers treated him like he was invisible; as soon as a target became available, someone would snatch it up, and no one would give him a spot.

Zhang Wazi didn't dare argue with the veterans, so he simply used the time to weigh the gunpowder. After weighing the gunpowder in advance, he wrapped it in paper, making twenty small packets. This way, he wouldn't need to weigh the gunpowder when filling the containers later, making the process much more convenient and faster.

Only after everyone had left and the shooting range was deserted did Zhang Wazi slowly walk to the middle of the range with his rifled musket.

I'm so lonely!
However, this quiet environment seemed more suitable for practicing with firearms than the lively one from before. Zhang Wazi took out a paper packet of powder, poured it into the chamber, and then took out a lead bullet and put it into the barrel. As soon as the bullet entered the chamber, it was jammed by the rifling and could not slide to the bottom.

Zhang Wazi had no choice but to take out a long pole and shove it into the gun barrel...

The rifling in the gun barrel made loading the bullets very difficult. It was common for lead bullets to get stuck in the rifling, and each time you had to poke them with a stick, and sometimes you even had to tap them a couple of times to load them properly.

This thing is much slower to load than a smoothbore gun.

But Zhang Wazi knew the advantage of this thing: it was accurate!

Extremely accurate!

It can hit exactly where you point it, unlike a smoothbore gun.

With a smoothbore gun, you can't necessarily hit the target you point at; it might even hit five feet away.

Zhang Wazi raised his rifle and aimed at a scarecrow target.

The scarecrow was even wearing a Jin soldier's uniform...

There were many holes in my clothes, all from shots fired by my comrades with muskets.

Zhang Wazi didn't want to aim at the scarecrow's body, because it had been riddled with bullets by his comrades. He raised his gun and aimed at the scarecrow's face.

"boom!"

A gunshot rang out, and a large hole appeared right in the middle of the scarecrow's face, sending straw clippings flying everywhere...

Zhang Wazi was overjoyed: "I got it! Step back a bit, let's try again."

Ten zhang, twenty zhang...

Zhang Wazi retreated to a distance of thirty feet, then fired a shot, hitting the target again.
-
The next morning, the battalion commander strolled around the shooting range and was surprised to find that the front of a scarecrow was badly damaged. He was overjoyed and wanted to praise the person who did it, so he pointed at the scarecrow and asked, "Who shot this?"

"Me!" Zhang Wazi weakly raised his hand.

Upon seeing it was him, the battalion commander's earlier delight vanished instantly. A person with connections? Then those bullet holes might be fake. His tone turned somber: "From what distance did you fire?"

Zhang Wazi: "I hit it once at ten zhang, once at twenty zhang, and once at thirty zhang. I thought thirty zhang wouldn't be too difficult, so I fired three more shots at that distance and hit them all."

As soon as these words came out, everyone was shocked!

Thirty feet, a slap in the face, three hits in a row? What kind of monster are you?
wrong! etc!
This is just what he said; we didn't see it with our own eyes, so this guy is definitely talking nonsense. He probably fired it from very close range, but deliberately said it was fired from thirty feet away.

The stragglers around him all looked on with suspicion.

The battalion commander sighed and thought: "At such a young age, you're already lying. Oh well, you have powerful connections and Zhang Yong protecting you. We can't afford to offend you. Let you brag."

The battalion commander neither praised nor questioned him, immediately putting the matter out of his mind, and loudly proclaimed, "Gentlemen, the next time the Jin invaders come, it will be a decisive battle. Orders have been given that our skirmisher battalion does not need to stay with the main force. We can find suitable ambush points on the flanks of the battlefield, hide, and seize opportunities to assassinate enemy commanders. Everyone, keep your eyes peeled, specifically look for those who are well-dressed, appear to be of high status, and are at least captains or higher. Target them carefully!"

After saying that, he pointed at Zhang Wazi and said, "Aren't you very good at slapping people in the face? The face of the Jin generals will depend on you to slap them in the face."

Zhang Wazi confidently replied, "Yes, sir!"

The stragglers nearby were thinking: You can't fake it on a real battlefield. Let's see what you, with your connections, can do.

(End of this chapter)